Actually, half the movie is pretty good. See, it's about WAY too many people falling in and, well, over love. The good parts of the movie feature Gillian Anderson being charmed by perfect guy Jon Stewart (maybe I liked this couple best because I look like Anderson and I'd like to date a guy like Stewart... if any of you know anyone... hey, coincidentally, Stewart is interviewing Anderson on "The Daily Show" right now!), Sean Connery and the great Gena Rowlands working through the issues that inevitably arise after 40 years of marriage, and the gorgeous Angelina Jolie relentlessly pursuing reclusive Ryan Phillippe. If the movie had just focused on these three pairings, all would have been well. Good writing, some clever lines, appealing characters -- I'd be willing to forgive the overwrought schmaltzy stuff at the too-too happy ending.
But they couldn't leave well enough alone. We have to sit through three OTHER sucky stories about people we just don't care about. There's Madeleine Stowe displaying all the emotional range of a block of ice as she has an affair with Anthony Edwards, Jay Mohr not acting his way out of a paper bag as he dies in the arms of his mother Ellen Burstyn, and Dennis Quaid doing some bizarre psycho thing of hitting on women in bars by telling them fake sob stories. These scenes, when not boring, are downright embarrassing -- Mohr's big death scene had all the emotional sincerity of an AT&T commercial. Of course, all these people turn out to be interrelated in oh-so-not-surprising ways, which doesn't make you care any more about them. Too bad they couldn't have sliced the loser couples and given more time and development to the ones who actually hold our interest. Wait for this to come out on video and fast-forward through the sucky parts.
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